History of Pomerania (1945–present) covers the history of Pomerania during World War II aftermath, the Communist and since 1989 Democratic era.
During this period, the bulk of Pomerania formed part of Poland, whereas most of Hither Pomerania formed part of East Germany, since 1990 in reunified Germany, merged with Mecklenburg into the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and a small portion of in the eastern part of the Vistula Spit around the abandoned village of Polski formed part of Russia.
With the consolidation of Communism in East Germany and People's Republic of Poland, Pomerania became part of the communist Eastern Bloc. In the 1980s, the Solidarność movement in Poland that started in the city of Gdańsk and the Wende movement in East Germany forced the Communists out of power and led to the establishment of democracy in both the Polish and German parts of Pomerania.
The name Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means "land by the sea".Der Name Pommern (po more) ist slawischer Herkunft und bedeutet so viel wie „Land am Meer“. ()
Post World War II
Soviet occupation
Soviet occupation of Pomerania had started just after the East Pomeranian Offensive, at the time of the northern campaigns of the Battle of Berlin by the Red Army and First Polish Army, in March and April 1945.
The Soviet's administrative installation basically followed the existing previous German administrative structures. Every-day life, however, was dictated according to Soviet decrees. Outside of civilian administration, this newly assembled local Soviet administration aimed to secure the hinterland regions, just beyond the frontline. In so doing, German property was referred to as "post-German". Items that could be carried were transported to the Soviet Union. This included largely domestic household furniture, instruments such as pianos, and textiles such as carpets. In some instances, the livestock and some machinery were sent to Russia as well. Most significantly, the industrial and manufacturing buildings and their shipyards were literally all deconstructed. Likewise, they too were simply transported to the Soviet Union.Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, pp. 370–373,
Vast areas of Farther Pomerania were vacated as the ethnic German population had fled the advancing Red Army. This was primarily the case with the areas around the Noteć and Oder rivers. For example, in the town of Arnswalde (now Choszczno) with a previous population of 14,000 only a few dozen German civilians remained. In other areas, a heterogeneous population remained, consisting of Pomeranians as well as stranded refugees from areas further east and evacuees from the industrial centers. For example, there were 330,000 Germans in the counties of Stolp (Słupsk), Schlawe (Sławno), Köslin (Koszalin), and Belgard (Białogard).
The ethnic German population was ordered to participate in the acquisition and transportation of Soviet war loot, and to live in assigned to them neighbourhoods of the towns. Some were also employed by the Soviet authorities in industry or its deconstruction, in agriculture, and in the clean-up of the wartime destruction, and were paid a low salary.
There were numerous examples of mistreatment of the ethnic German populations by the occupying Soviets including: manhunts, arrests and deportations for slave labor, holdups, forays, and often rapes.BBC, Contributed by Audrey Lewis, The von Thadden Family in Pomerania (part six), Article ID: A8683130,
Formation of Polish communist administration in Farther Pomerania First Polish communist officials arrived in Farther Pomerania in April 1945. The provisional government of Poland on March 14 had created the Polish administrative district of Pomerania, which included Farther Pomerania and the northern Neumark. This was based on a decision of the Soviet state council for defense in February to place some eastern territories of Germany under Polish administration, and a subsequent order of the military council of the First Belorussian Front in early March requiring a solely Polish civilian administration in the territories that were handed over and also required the Soviet military to assist in the Polish administration's establishment.
The Polish plenipotentiary for the new Pomeranian district since April 11 was colonel Leonard Borkowicz. Borkowicz and the starosts had a very limited knowledge of the area they were to govern, and were sent in only with an official attestation of their position, sketches of the counties, 500 zlotys, and alcohol to use as valuta. Their primary objective was the preparation of the area for Polish settlement.Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, pp. 374–375 Subordinate to Borkowicz were forty county assignees (starosts).
The Polish officials were regarded no more than auxiliary personnel by the Soviet military administration, which was in charge of most of industry, bakeries, most of the farmland, and fishery. The Polish administrators concentrated on reinstating electricity, gas, and water supply and on stockpiling groceries for the expected Polish settlers. Conflicts arose when they tried to charge the Soviets for power, gas, or water.< Also they failed to have the Soviet authorities inhibit the forays of Red Army soldiers and officers. Overall Soviet attitude toward the Polish administrators ranged from providing aid to neglect.
Deportations of Germans before the Potsdam Agreement In two weeks of June 1945, the Polish Army under the Soviet command deported 110,000 ethnic Germans from the areas adjacent to the eastern bank of the Oder river, and the counties of Stargard, Łobez, Pyrzyce, and Choszczno, all in Farther Pomerania.
Many German civilians were deported to labor camps like Vorkuta in the Soviet Union, where a large number of them perished or were later reported missing.
Border shift and consequences
In the Potsdam Agreement, the allies decided to move the Polish-German border west to the Oder-Neisse line, pending a final peace conference with Germany. Since a peace conference never took place, the provisions of the Agreement effectively defined the new border.; ; Most of the remaining German population was expelled. In case of Pomerania, the entire pre-war Polish part of Pomerania remained part of Poland, and the Free City of Danzig and most of the pre-war German province of Pomerania, including the city of Swinemünde (Świnoujście), also became part of Poland, and a small portion of Gdańsk Pomerania in the eastern part of the Vistula Spit around the abandoned village of Polski passed to the Soviet Union, now part of Russia. In addition, a strip of land 20 km west of Szczecin, and a small part of the Usedom island also became part of Poland in order to facilitate the growth of these cities. The remainder of Pomerania west of Szczecin and the Oder River was joined with Mecklenburg and formed Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
In Potsdam, the border was defined as leaving the Oder river at a bridge some three kilometers west of Gryfino and from that point running north as a straight line to the church of Ahlbeck. On September 21, 1945, the Polish plenipotentiary Borkowicz and the Polish president of Szczecin, Piotr Zaremba, adjusted the border in the Treaty of Schwerin. The border now started at a point in the Bay of Pomerania 3 miles (5.5 kilometers) off the shore, from which it ran south through the Szczecin Lagoon and left Camminke on the East German and Papart on the Polish side.Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, pp. 385–387,
In January 1951, the border was again adjusted. The potable water reservoir of Świnoujście, which was on the German side since the Treaty of Schwerin, and the islands of the Oder River were assigned to Poland, and a small part of Usedom to East Germany. Also, the border within the Pomeranian Bay was extended to 6 miles.
Polish part of Pomerania - Szczecin Voivodship The Soviet Army kept proving grounds and naval bases in Pomerania; the areas were excluded from Polish jurisdiction until 1992. Russia used the area to store nuclear warheads.
In the summer of 1945, the Soviets started to dissolve their administrative institutions in Pomerania. In 14 towns, the civilian administration was handed over to Polish officials.Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, p.379,
In October, the counties of Stettin and Swinemünde were handed over to Polish administration. The areas on the Oder's left bank (Police area) stayed under Soviet control until 1946. There, a provisional Soviet county was set up on order of marshal Zhukov, where 25,000 Germans had to completely deconstruct an industrial facility used to produce synthetic fuels. Also the Szczecin port stayed directly under Soviet control, and was only handed over to Poland from February 1946 to September 1947, officially only in May 1954. The Oder waterway was handed over to Poland in September 1946. Farmland and estates were handed over until 1949 - in February 1946, half of the farmland was still Soviet property.Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, pp. 379–381,
The Red Army started to increase the withdrawal of troops from the Polish part of Pomerania in the fall of 1945.Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeiten, p. 381,
Polonization
With its eastern territories (the Kresy) annexed by the Soviet Union, Poland was effectively moved westwards and its area reduced by almost 20% (from 389,000 km2 to 312,000 km2). With the establishment of the People's Republic of Poland followed sweeping changes in population, a "repatriation" of millions that resulted in what Geoffrey Hosking describes as "the biggest population exchange in European history."Geoffrey Hosking, George Schopflin, Myths and Nationhood, 1997, p. 153, Germans, Ukrainians and others who were not perceived as Polish were shuffled out of the new boundaries, while the Poles east of the Curzon line were shuffled in. The picture of the new western and northern territories being recovered Piast territory was used to forge Polish settlers and "repatriates" arriving there into a coherent community loyal to the new regime.Martin Åberg, Mikael Sandberg, Social Capital and Democratisation: Roots of Trust in Post-Communist Poland and Ukraine, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, , Google Print, p. 79
Largely excepted from the expulsions of Germans were the "autochthons", close to three million ethnically Slavic inhabitants of Pomerania, the Kashubians and Slovincians, of whom however many did not identify with Polish nationality.Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC 2004/1 The Polish government aimed to retain as many "autochthons" as possible for propaganda purposes, as their presence on former German soil was used to indicate the intrinsic "Polishness" of the area and justify its incorporation into the Polish state as "recovered" territories. "Verification" and "national rehabilitation" processes were set up to reveal a "dormant Polishness" and to determine which were redeemable as Polish citizens; few were actually expelled The "autochthons" not only disliked the subjective and often arbitrary verification process, but they also faced discrimination even after completing it,Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak, Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948, 2001, p. 114, such as the Polonization of their names.Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau nach 1945, 2006, p. 363,
Treatment and expulsion of Germans after the Potsdam Agreement